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Book I. AGRICULTURE OF THE ROMANS. 31
for by these means they become more steady and more attached to the farm. On account of these connections, the epirotic families are so distinguished and attached.‘To give the persons who preside, some degree of pleasure, you must hold them in some estimation; and you must consult with some of the superior workmen concerning the work that is to be done: when you behave thus, they think that they are less despicable, and that they are held in some degree of esteem by their master. They become more eager for work by liberal treatment, by giving them victuals, or a large garment, or by granting them some recreation or favor, as the privilege of feeding something on the farm, or some such thing. In relation to them, who are commanded to do work of greater drudgery, or who are punished, let somebody restore their good will and affection to their master by aftord- ing them the benefit of consolation.
164. Knowledge in matters relative to agriculture is inculcated by all the rustic authors. <¢ Whoever,” says Columella,“ would be perfect in this science, must be well acquaint- ed with the qualities of soils and plants; must not be ignorant of the various climates, that so he may know what is agreeable, and what is repugnant to each, he must know exactly the succession of the seasons, and the nature of each, lest, beginning his work when showers and wind are just at hand, his labor shall be lost. He must be capable to ob- serve exactly the present temper of the sky and seasons; for these are not always regular, nor in every year does the summer and winter bring the same kind of weather, nor is the spring always rainy, and the autumn wet. To know these things before they happen, without a very good capacity, and the greatest care to acquire knowledge, is, in my opinion, in the power of no man.”(Col. lib. i. pref.)‘To these things mentioned by Columella, Virgil adds several others.“ Before we plough a field to which we are strangers,” says he,‘ we must be careful to attain a knowledge of the winds, from what points they blow at the particular seasons, and when and from whence they are most violent; the nature of the climate, which in different places is very different; the cus- toms of our forefathers; the customs of the country; the qualities of the different soils; and what are the crops that each country and climate produces and rejects.”’(Virg. Georg. i. 1.1.)
165. The making experiments is a thing very strongly recommended to the farmer by some of our authors.‘‘ Nature,” says Varro,“ has pointed out to us two paths, which lead to the knowledge of agriculture, viz. experience and imitation. The ancient husband- men, by making experiments, have established many maxims. Their posterity, for the most part, imitate them; we ought to do both, imitate others and make experiments our- selves, not directed by chance, but reason.”(Var. lib. i. cap. 18.)
Secr. V. Of the Produce and Profit of Roman Agriculture.
166. The topics of produce and profits in agriculture, are very difficult to be discussed sa- tisfactorily. In manufactures the raw material is purchased for a sum certain, and the manipulation given by the manufacturer can be accurately calculated; but in farming, though the rent of the land and price of seed-corn, which may be considered the raw ma- terials, is known; yet the quantity of labor required to bring forth the produce, de- pends so much on seasons, ac sidents, and other circumstances, to which agriculture is more liable than any other art, that its value or cost price cannot easily be determined. It is a common mode to estimate the profits of farming by the numerical returns of the seed sown. But this is a most fallacious ground of judgment, since the quantity of seed given to lands of different qualities, and of different conditions, is very dif- ferent; and the acre, which, being highly cultivated and sown with only a bushel of seed, returns forty for one, may yield no more profit than that which being in middling con- dition requires four bushels of seed, and yields only ten for one.
167. The returns of seed sown mentioned by the ancients, are very remarkable. We have noticed Isaac’s sowing and reaping at Gerar,(7.) where he received a hundred. for one. In Mark’s gospel,‘‘ good seed sown upon good ground, is said to bring forth in some places thirty, in others forty, in others sixty, and in others even an hundred fold.”’ (Mark iv. 8.) A hundred fold, Varro informs us, was reaped about Garada in Syria and Byzacium in Africa. Pliny adds, that from the last place, there were sent to Augustus by his factor nearly 400 stalks, all from one grain; and to Nero, 340 stalks. He says, he has seen the soil of this field,‘* which when dry the stoutest oxen cannot plough; but after rain I have seen it opened up by a share, drawn by a wretched ass on the one side, and an old woman on the other.”(Nat. Hist. xviii. cap. 5.) The returns in Italy were much less extraordinary. Varro says, there are sown on a jugerum, four modii(pecks) of beans, five of wheat, six of barley, and ten of far(maize); more or less as the soil is rich or poor. The produce is in some places ten after one, but in others, as in Tuscany, fifteen after one.”(Lib. i. cap. 44.) This, in round numbers, is at the ete of twenty-one and thirty-two bushels an English acre. On the excellent lands of Leon- tinum in Sicily, the produce, according to Cicero, was no more than from eight to ten for one. In Columella’s time, when agriculture had declined, it was still less.